The Anatomy of My First Viral Pin

So I had my first viral pin recently and it was super exciting. Viral is of course relative to each blogger’s individual average traffic, but exciting none the less!

After much research, Pinterest really is a game changer in regards to traffic. It turns a one day post into an evergreen one that can generate a steady flow of traffic, or even go viral and bring in tons of new visitors.

So why is this pin taking off? I’ve analyzed the anatomy of my viral pin and deducted the reasons this pin went (is still going!) viral.

Title

I’ve pinned a number of graphics myself that give buzzwords and suggestions for crafting an engaging title. I actually named this post 11 Essential Tips to Recover Right During Marathon Training, but left out essential on the graphic due to space. I wasn’t happy about that, but apparently it isn’t hurting the pin all that much. The title ties in to the next area–the topic.

Topic

Running has grown about 300% since 1990 (runningusa.org), and if you’re a runner who’s running a marathon this information is vital to success. It’s also prime marathon season right now and this topic (combined with the title) are something future marathoners absolutely need.  They can’t help but click to make sure they’re not missing out on a piece of information that might be critical to their performance.

Color and Font and Image

We know content is king, but on Pinterest design is the royal advisor. You’ll never get to the king without getting past him first. 

What I love about this pin is the bright green background and the simple orange sock off center, leaving clear visibility for contrasting bold, white lettering. In other words–this pin pops. 

I’ve also realized that I need to think Pinterest when actually photographing. Like shooting vertically and taking into account where the wording will go. This photograph just happened to turn out right.

Here is the original shot that I took with my Canon T3i DSLR camera:

I still have to remember to shoot vertically, but since my camera takes such high quality images, I am able to zoom and crop as necessary.

Promotion

There’s nothing worse than crafting a blog post, designing a pinable graphic and then never having it be read much or repinned at all. That was me until I started participating in blogger support groups that pin/like/share/comment on other bloggers content. Reciprocating these actions within the blogging community 1) gets everyone’s content out to a larger audience 2) creates a strong sense of community in an otherwise virtual world. The key is to make sure you are posting high quality content and graphics. I have no doubt the success and virality of this pin was due to me participating in a reciprocation thread. The pin was exposed to so many more people than I could have reached on my own. All it takes is a few repins for the snowball effect to get started.

I happen to find this stuff fascinating and love analyzing what works (and doesn’t!) in the blogging world. If you found this helpful, sign up below to get posts delivered to your inbox. Blogging tips get published on the first Tuesday of the month.

Let me know if there’s anything blogging topics you’re curious to learn more about!

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